Saturday, August 28, 2010

Pancuts (old pans + water jet cutter)

 In progress - will be updated when finished. 
I made my first set of pancuts while still in college.  The project started with a sketch and a cabinet full of very beat-up frying pans.  They were useless for cooking, which was why I had the thought of using them as blank canvases.

After scanning and vectorizing my sketch, I was able to use the school's water jet cutter to slice the design into the pans.  The final product turned out great, and for a few years I didn't pursue the idea further. (These first pancuts are now in storage, but a rendering of the design is here.)

In 2009, I had another thought: what about cutting a pan to make it look like a clock face?  This idea expanded out to the twenty designs shown to the right, with many more on the drawing board.

The bad news is that I'm not sure how much longer this will be an in-progress project.  I've made a few visits to second-hand stores and stocked up on old pans, but getting a new full-time job has put a damper on side projects.  Additionally, finding a local job shop with the right equipment and an interest in doing art parts has been surprisingly hard.

I'm planning to sell these once they are made, so I'm very interested in knowing if anyone out there would consider buying something like this.  Please let me know if you want to reserve a copy of one of the designs shown and/or would like to request some other design and/or have any other thoughts on the subject.  You can either write direct or use the contact form found here.